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Professor John Satterly
Department of Physics
University of Toronto

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

The Edition printed for sale is limited to 125
large paper copies royal 8vo, and 300 copies
in demy 8vo.

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED

T. A, FALCON, M.A. A SERIES
OF ONE HUNDRED FULL PAGE
PLATES OF ITS SCENERY AND
ANTIQUITIES WITH SOME SHORT
TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

Exeter

JAMES G COMMIN
1900.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Assacombe Remains (two plates) ... ... ... 23, 24

Beardown Bridge ••• ... 49

Beardown Man ... .. .r- ... ... 45

Becky Fall ... ... ... ... ... 42

Bennett's Cross ... ... ... 29

Blackaven Bridge ... ••• ... ... 95

Black Tor ... ... ... !.. ... 63

Black Tor Circle ... 62

Bowerman's Nose ... ... ... 35

Brent Tor Church ... ... 86

Broadun ... ... ... ... ... 44

Chagf ord : Three Crowns Hotel ... ... 6

Cranmere ... .. ... ... ... 90

Crockern Tor ... ... 48

Cromlech near Drewsteignton ••• ... ... 5

Dart: Eagle Rock ... ... ... ... 54

Dart : Early Snow on the Dart ... ... ... 55

Dartmeet ... ... ... 50

Dartmeet Clapper Bridge ... ... ... ... 51

Down Tor Circle and Row ••• ... 61

Drizzlecombe Menhir ... ... ... 60

Eagle Rock, on the Dart ... ... ... 54

vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Now Bridge ... 67

Fern worthy Circle ... ... ... ... 25

Fingle Bridge, on the Teign ... 4

Fur Tor ... ... ... 89

Ger Tor, Tavy Cleave ... ... 88

Gidleigh Antiquities (eight plates) 8, 10, 12, 13, 17, 18, 25, 26

Gidleigh Longstone 17

Grey Wethers 26

Grimsgrave ... 59

Grimspound (three plates) ... ... ... 30, 31, 32

Heytor • . • ... Vignette

Heytor from Hound Tor •• ... ... 39

High Willhayes .. ... ... 92

Holne Bridge, on the Dart ... 53

Hound Tor (three plates) ... ... ... 36, 37, 38

Kestor 19

Kit's Steps on the Lyd ... ... 81

Langstone Circle and Mis Tor ... 75

Leather Tor (two plates) ... ... ... ... 65, 66

Leeden Tor ... 64

Leigh Bridge, on the Teign 7

Logan Stone, Rippon Tor ... 40

Logan Stone, Sittaford Tor ... ... 27

Longaf ord Tor ... • • • ... ... 46

Longstone ; Merivale ... ... 76

Lower Jurston ... 28

Lustleigh Cleave Weir ... ... 41

Lydford Bridge 79

Lydford Church ...... 78

Lydford Viaduct ... ... ... 80

,Mary Tavy Cross 84

Merivale Antiquities (two plates) ... ... 76, 77

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. vii

Metherall Hut Circle 22

Nun's Cross ••• ... ... 57

Okehampton Castle : Window 99

Okehampton Castle: Gateway of Keep 100

Okehampton Park and Castle ... ... 98

Okement, View on the East Okement • •• 97

Panoramic View: Links Tor, Sharpitor, etc* 82

Panoramic View: Hare Tor, Doe Tor, etc- 83

Pew Tor ... 69

Ponsworthy ... ... ... 52

Postbridge Clapper Bridge 43

Rippon Tor Logan Stone 40

Rough Tor, Okehampton 94

Roundy Pound, near Batworthy 8

Sampford Spiney Church... 68

Scorhill Circle ... 13

Sharpitor: Teign Gorge ••• 3

Sharpitor: Lydford ... 91

Sittaford Logan Stone ... ... ... ... 27

South Hessary Tor ... ... ... ... 56

Stall Moor Circle ... ... ... ... 58

Staple Tors (three plates) ... ... ... 72, 73, 74

Steeperton from Taw Marsh ... ... ... 96

Stone Avenue, Assacombe ... ... 24

Stone Avenue, Merivale ... ... ... ... 77

Stone Avenue on the Teign ... ... ... 18

Tavy Cleave ... ... ... ... ... 87

Tavistock Public Buildings ... ... ... 85

Taw Marsh ... ... ... ... ... 96

Teign and Wallabrook, Junction of the ... 11

Teign below Batworthy ... ... ... ... 9

Teign Gorge, Entrance to the... ... ... 2

viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Teign Woods, Chagford ••• l

Teignhead Clapper Bridge • ••• 16

Thirlstone : Watern Tor ••• 14

Thorn, Cottages at 20

Tolmen on the Teign ... 10

Vixen Tor ••• 70

Wallabrook Clapper Bridge 12

Wallabrook and Teign, Junction of the ••• 11

Watern Tor 15

Week Down Cross ... 21

Widecombe: Ancient Well 34

Widecombe Church ••• 33

Windy Post 71

Wistman's Wood 47

Yestor ... ... ••• ... ... ... 93

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

As may be inferred from its title, this publication
Prefatory. is primarily and essentially illustrative, and is

intended to supplement Rowe's " Perambulation
of Dartmoor " and all other descriptive works dealing with the
Moor. It professes neither to guide nor to enlighten, but
merely to recall. At the same time, a certain sequence and
orderliness in the disposition of the prints has not been dis-
regarded, while topographic and other practical information will
be found to have been embodied, to a fair extent, in the notes.
Their subjects fall naturally into three sections, dealing with as
many centres — Chagford, Princetown, and Lydford — and these
again sub-divide themselves fairly clearly into individual tours or
circuits, such as may be as comprehensive as possible, though
well within the compass of average days.

"... .Where happy mortals go in quest
Of rarest joys ; such are the vales
Of my dear lowland in the west." — Capcni.

Little but unqualified praise can fall to the share
Teign Gorge of this stretch of river and woodland display,
and Fingle. which constitutes one of the chief glories of those

with which Chagford holds its recurring visitors.
Pleasantly heralded by the short stretch which intervenes between
Chagford and Sandypark, a few average fields next disenchant us,
only to increase dramatically the effect of the sudden change at
the entrance to the gorge. Heather-clad slopes loom large and

x DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

purple over a descending path ; the hillsides close in abruptly,
sylvan on the right, on the left perplexed with granite and as yet
inhospitable ; below, and along its whole course, the river
" mazily murmurs " among moss-stained boulders, gay with all
manner of flowering weeds, circling many an island of shrub and
blossom, and shadowy with overhanging branches. Presently,
clear-cut Sharpitor towers on the left, ivy-clad, paying yearly
toll to the screes which surround it, and our footpath, hugging
corners and faces of rock, bears evident trace of unequal contest
with winter spates. Then denser woods close round, through
which we catch but momentary glimpse of slopes stately curving
and tree-invested to their summits, until in a while we emerge on
a level space of ampler woodland dignity, sun-flecked and cool
with spreading beeches — an aisle in a forest cathedral, whence
something of solemnity or Dryad charm is rarely lacking. Little
beyond this, a straighter stretch of river forms a vista to Fingle
Bridge and the steep and bare declivities of Prestonbury.
Though the path below Fingle Bridge has been represented as
only an angler's path and poor, we shall find it tolerable enough
unencumbered by rod and line, and the continuation of the ex-
cursion to Clifford Bridge is well worth the additional mileage.

Two miles along the road which runs N.E. from

Drewsteign- Chagford Bridge, or 2^ W. of Drewsteignton,

ton Cromlech, this, the only Devonian standing Cromlech, reigns

in a potato-field, or haply over turnips and
mangolds. Its dignity somehow survives the contest with those
strenuous vegetables ; but many must needs think congruity
more important than locality, and regret the domesticity of its
setting. We may be reminded of the surpassing effect of
harmonious surroundings by the case of Chun Cromlech in
Penwith (not to be compared with this as a monument) where
most things conspire to keep alive original atmosphere and
significance. The Devonian Cromlech collapsed and \vas
re-erected in the early sixties; the bulk of its roofing stone, seen
from the Shilston side, is remarkable. The theories and fancies

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. xi

which have been woven round its imagined uses are interestingly
narrated in " Rowe," pp. 1 1 5-1 1 8, where also notice will be found of
the vanished antiquities in its neighbourhood, the last stones of
which finally succumbed to builders' ravages in 1865. Bradmere
Pool, across the road, is worthy of a visit, whether it still be held
the home of mysteries or materially explicable. There is an
interesting legend connecting it by a passage or stone-covered
way with the Logan Stone in the Teign.

But for an attack upon it by the forces of the
Chagiord. Parliament in revolutionary days, this favourite

little centre has practically nothing to show of
particular episode or picturesque incident. There is an air about
it of dignified, if unexciting, aloofness from the stress and discon-
tent of history. Quiet generation succeeded to quiet generation,
and even now much of an eighteenth century equanimity and ease
seems to linger in it. It is a village of quaint substantial houses,
of gables, porches, and mullioned windows, over which now, —
adding the quaintest touch of all,— brisk electric light is nightly
diffused. It has become a popular resting place partly in conse-
quence of this, its atmosphere of peace : but its advantages as a
centre have probably had more influence still towards that end,
for it commands a country rich in contrasts and varying interests.
From Cranmere, or Fur Tor, to Fingle Bridge : from Cawsand
to Widecombe, or even Dartmeet :— within these limits lies a
district truly representative both of Dartmoor and of its confines,
and one that is not the least rich in antiquarian or picturesque
objects. Of particular Chagford buildings, the pleasant and old-
fashioned hostelry of the "Three Crowns" is the traditional
scene of Sidney Godolphin's death ; killed, during the above-
mentioned attack, in the porch of the inn.

At the foot of the typical border lane, locally
Leigh Bridge, ironically known as Featherbed Lane, the junction

of the North and South Teign takes place, in a
sumptuous and sheltered nook — an intelligibly favourite short

xii DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

excursion from Cha^fm-d. Here the Teign changes its character
notably, and begins its more spacious and leisurely course, though
it does not yet seem wholly tamed, but retains, almost as far as
Clifford Bridge, picturesque evidence of its moorland origin.

Incredibly enough, this interesting remain was on
Roundy the point of builders' destruction in 1890, from

Pound. which it was rescued by a mere question of

economy. It is described in uRowe'' as follows :
" An external enclosure in the form of a spherical triangle, with
an inner circle nearly adjoining the N.W. side of the outer
enclosure. The walls were probably built of upright rough
masonry ; those of the inner circle have had care paid them
in their erection, and the door-jambs still remain. The inner
circle is 35 ft. in diameter and the wall about 5 ft. thick. The
area between this circle and the outer enclosure, now a confused
heap of stones, was divided into six compartments by narrow
walls extending from the inner circle to the outer enclosure."

The Teign, like most of the Dartmoor waters, is
The Teign a river of rapid changes. Perhaps no instance is
below more typical than the sudden alteration in its

Batworthy. character which takes place above and below Bat-
worthy. At its junction with the Wallabrook it
chafes against a chaos of errant blocks, amongst banks of gorse
and heather, past scanty birch or ash ; half-a-mile down its course
it suddenly flows at ease for a space, in a scene of pure woodland
charm, forgetful of moorland obstructions.

A few score yards down, the Teign from the
Tolmen on Wallabrook Bridge, on the Scorhill side, this
the Teign. object of some discussion lies, its top approxi-
mately 6 ft. above the average level of the river.
The hole is 3 ft. in diameter at the top, its bounding walls being
worn through towards the bottom, on the river side, and the fact
and manner of this wearing form somewhat insuperable arguments

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. xiii

for the naturalness of its origin. Now-a-days the discussion of
the learned concerning it is confined mostly to the question
whether a natural phenomenon of the kind might or might not
have been adapted and utilized for this rite or the other — a point
of probability which obviously varies with the varying bias of
the arguer. Ultimately, the appeal is to coincidence — the co-
incidence of Scorhill circle, the avenue, Longstone, etc., existent
in the immediate neighbourhood.

Approaching Scorhill circle from Kestor and
Scorhill and Batworthy, the Teign is crossed by a small
Wallabrook. (modern) clamped bridge, near the angle formed

by its confluence with the Wallabrook. Following
the latter up stream for a short distance, we reach the Wallabrook
Clapper Bridge, a notable example 12 ft. long by 3 ft. wide,
formed of a single slab. Thence the cart track leads to the circle.
The diameter of this is 90 ft. ; one stone is almost 8 ft. high, a
second 6 ft., the remainder ranging downwards to 3 ft. " Eight
stones lie on the ground, and twenty-four of these time-worn
obelisks still maintain their erect position, and twenty stones
would be required to fill up the vacancies." Though by accident
of position Langstone circle is somewhat more impressive pictor-
ially, it will be observed that in original extent and impressiveness
this circle takes precedence of all others on the moor. Langstone
circle (consisting of sixteen stones) being 57 ft., and Stall Moor
circle about 50 ft. in diameter.

Taken either on the way to or from Cranmere
Watern Tor. from Chagford, this Tor forms a pleasant object

of relief and interest. The adjacent rocks of
Wild Tor are somewhat similar in character and position, but
have nothing of the ordered dignity of the Thirlestone and the
main stack of Watern Tor. Dominating, on the East, the wide
and comparatively level moorland, flecked with purple and
emerald or the pale gold of withered rushes, through which
flow the Teign and the Wallabrook, backed by Kestor and the
blue inferior hills beyond, on the W7est the central waste of

xiv DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

peat-hags and morass : — this is a singularly effective view point,
and as such seems somewhat neglected. The view of the
Thirlestone (or perforated stone) here given shows the aperture
as arched ; but the piles are, in actuality, separated at their
narrowest part by a small interval. The Thirlestone is at the
northernmost, Watern Tor at the southernmost end of the
\\ atern plateau.

This specimen of a clapper is now understood to

Teignhead be of modern construction. Presumably its

Bridge. excellent preservation was held to discountenance

its antiquity, and possibly also the proximity of
the Shepherd's Farm suggested a comparatively modern necessity.
In any case, it is not very obvious what pressing requirement of
ancient communication could have suggested its erection. If it
led to any extensive village remains on Whitehorse Hill,
Hangingstone, or thereabouts, definite probability might be
invoked ; but that region is now, as ever, the most inhospitable
on the Moor. The bridge displays very well the characteristics
of a " Cyclopean " specimen. There are two piers, and the
bridge is 27 ft. long by 8 ft. wide, the roadway being formed of
six slabs placed in couples.

The antiquities, of which these are the insufficient
Gidleigh remains, are supposed to have extended from Fern-
Antiquities, worthy Circle practically to Scorhill — a distance

of about 2^ miles ; Batworthy and Thornworthy
wall builders being responsible for infinite destruction. The
Longstone is about half a mile south-west of Kestor, and is 12 feet
high ; thence lor a little distance to the south the destroyed
avenue can be traced by the holes which once held its stones, till
we come to the single remaining support of a supposed cromlech
— a stone 5 ft. high, a relic of three known as the ''Three Boys."
North of the Longstone the avenue is traceable at greater or
smaller intervals past a Kistvaen to a triple circle, whence it
branches into two, with the general directions N.E. and N.W.
" There are ten stones in the outer circle, six in the middle circle,

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. xv

and eight in the third. The diameters are 26 ft., 20 ft., and 3 ft.
respectively."

Not very far south of Roundy Pound is the
Kestor. favourite Chagford view-point of Kestor, or Castor

Rock— a type differing greatly (as differences go in
Dartmoor rock masses) from the forms typified by Vixen Tor, in
the comparative absence or unimportance of its vertical joints.
It is nearer in type to Hey Tor, but that in the latter 'the lines of
pseudo-bedding occur at greater intervals, resulting in its case and
that of its kind in a greater impression of massiveness. How-
ever, we may find compensation for this in the contrast between
Kestor and Watern Tor, its fellow sentinel on the moor not far
removed. It is additionally interesting from its well-known
specimen of large rock basin on its top (for some time now
enclosed). It is 2 ft. 7 in. in depth, and from a width of
7 ft. 6 in. at the top, declines to 2 ft. at the bottom. There are
four or five ot'her smaller ones. In comparison, the measure-
ments of Mistor Pan, the sides of which are perpendicular, are
3 ft. wide by 8 in. deep.

Possibly in part the result of its milder sur-

Week Down roundings, far in the outskirts of the Moor, this

Cross. cross seems to distinguish itself from other

Dartmoor crosses (impressive by their rugged-
ness and uncompromising strength) by a certain gracefulness
and mildness of appeal. It is a well-known object to Chagford
natives and visitors, and is situated about a mile along the road
which leaves the town in a S.E. direction and crosses Nattadon
Common. Both of its faces have a cross incised.

Above Fernworthy, the south Teign branches into
Assacombe. two. one branch having its source some three fur-
longs E.S.E. of the Grey Wethers, the other
flowing down the valley between White Ridge and Assacombe
Hill. It is the latter branch which concerns the visitor to the

xvi DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

Assacombe remains, for it will lead him in less than half a mile
from the junction to the double stone row, — a neglected but
excellent specimen of its kind. Indeed, possibly owing to a pic-
torial prejudice, or the prepossessions of antiquarian ignorance,
the writer confesses to an emphatic preference for this example
over such other Dartmoor rows as are illustrated in the present
series. It cannot actually be said to be in a position difficult of
access, but it is in one most suggestive of weirdness and remote-
ness ; moreover, the stones at the head of it, near the sepulchral
circle at the eastern end, impress especially with a sense of
strangeness — such as bleached and mammoth bones come upon
suddenly might convey ; while the irregularity of the lines running
down the slope adds further to that quality. To these antiquities,
if to any, we apply at once the epithet " bizarre," and Mr.
Burnard seems to deserve particular thanks for rescuing them
from neglect. The accompanying illustrations show the rows
from both ends; in the case of that taken from the western end,
the blocking-stone is prominent, and there is also included a
portion of the hut circle adjacent on the south side.

On the South Teign, half-a-mile or three-quarters of

Fernworthy a mile E. of Fernworthy, is a collection of hut circles

Remains. in very good preservation. They are dotted about

on the southern slopes some distance from the river,
and, indeed, further from it than from the road. They are best
approached from the latter shortly after the last gate from Fern-
worthy has been passed. The one illustrated is the largest of the
group, and indeed one of the best on the Moor. Its diameter is
about 30 ft. Further down the river there is a stone avenue not
representative of such antiquities at their best. A quarter
of a mile \Y.N.\Y. of Fernworthy is the comparatively small
circle known by the same name. It is a little over 60 ft. in diameter,
and is supposed originally to have consisted of thirty-three stones.
Twenty-five now remain upright, all under 4 ft. An avenue of
small stones extends some distance south, and 150 yards to the
north of the circle it can be traced for one-third of that distance.

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. xvii

At the foot of the final eastern slope of Sittaford

Grey Tor, 2| miles slightly W. of N. from Postbridge

Wethers. (in a straight line) and a short mile south of

Teignhead Bridge, these two circles are situated
on a piece of level ground close to a leat. They now form
practically no more than two half circles, as a great part
of their stones has fallen, some three or four being partially
or wholly covered. The diameter of both circles is about 100 ft.
— the south being somewhat the larger of the two. In the
north circle, which shows the largest gaps of stones abso-
lutely missing, sixteen stones remain, of which nine are
upright. In the south circle seven stones remain standing
while twenty fallen ones are traceable. If the gaps may be
assumed originally to have been filled by stones congruous
in size, and in distance from each other, with the stones
now remaining, the north circle probably once had nine or
ten additional stones ; the south three. The squareness of
some of the blocks has led to the conclusion that they were
probably worked, and in consequence (though their actual
date is uncertain) may be taken to be of later origin than
such circles as Scorhill, which consist of rude stones of
convenient natural shaping only. It is distinctly to be regretted
that no steps have so far been taken to restore these
interesting circles by the re-erection of their existing fallen
stones.

There is nothing of particular interest here,
Sittaford either in detail or in general view, but its

Tor. proximity to the Grey Wethers may tempt sight-

seers to an inspection of its square and massive
Logan Stone. Emphatic asseverations by one of the Perrotts
of Chagford to the effect that this is one of the most easily rocked
Logan Stones, lead the writer to conclude that he was unlucky in
his efforts or the positions chosen. Still, there was, perhaps, a good
deal of local patriotism in the depiction of the ease with which
it was possible to move it.

xviii DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

Besides the more notable and well-known sights

Jurston that surround Chagford, many little nooks of

and wood and stream in the outlying neighbourhood,

Thorn. and many quaint and pictorial homesteads, repay

an eye not careless in observation. Thorn (on the
way to Teigncombe or Gt. Frenchbeer). Stiniel, Jurston, are but
three of these ; others will suggest themselves to every reader.
The first and third are here illustrated. Jurston in particular is
a delightful little spot, as concerns its little stretch of stream
and lane. It lies on the most direct pedestrian route to or
from Grimspound. while the little collection of homesteads at
Stiniel, nearer to Chagford, is not far out of it.

Just outside the Forest proper, and half a mile

Bennett's towards Moreton from the Warren Inn, this cross

Cross. cannot escape notice on the right hand side of the

road. As will be seen, it leans considerably out of
the perpendicular, and is in a somewhat rough and unhewn
state, the bottom half of the shaft being considerably larger in
girth than the upper. Its mean height is slightly over six feet.
On the side away from us in the present print, are the letters
W.B. — modern, and standing for nothing more romantic than
"Warren Bounds."

Containing twenty-four hut circles, and four
(irimspound. acres in extent, is the most noted of Dartmoor

pounds. It is only possible here to summarise
very briefly the principal results of the Exploration Committee's
first examination. Of the twenty-four hut circles only two are in
any way perfect, seven of the twenty-four showing no trace of
human occupancy. Hut number three, partially re-built by the
explorers and now enclosed, shows the floor exposed, with
cooking hole, hearth, and platform. Flint objects and traces of
human occupancy were very generally in evidence. The enclosing
walls of the pound, now in a singularly ruinous state, are seen to
have consisted of two walls, the faces of which have generally

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. xix

collapsed towards each other, filling up the space between them.
Whatever the uses of that space were, the report does not favour
the older assumption that it was ever filled in, making practically
one ramparl of the two. The original entrance was to the south-
east, and was cleared, leaving the pavement and steps exposed.
On the west side of the pound wall, there are enclosures con-
nected with the wall. It is presumed that the uses of the pound
were not those of a village in regular occupation, but rather that it
formed the occasional refuge of the scattered neolithic inhabitants
of the neighbourhood. The course of the stream known as
Grimslake probably in part determined its position, and tin-miners
of a later date, if ever they utilised the huts, have left no evidence
to that effect.

From the greater part of the upland that sur-
Widecombe. rounds it we look down upon Widecombe as on a

jewel gleaming in roughest of settings. From its
bower of trees the pinnacled church tower rises conspicuous from
all points. In local tradition, the first place is held by that tale
of "a very great darkness" and of "the extraordinary flame of
lightning, which filled the church with fire, smoak, and a loath-
some smell like brimstone," on Oct. 21, 1638. Four were killed
and sixty-two injured on that historic occasion,, while the church
itself was damaged and "the steeple was much wrent." Tablets
painted in black letter verse by the village schoolmaster of the
day were put up in commemoration of this event, and were
replaced in 1786 by the boards now against the south interior
walls of the tower. Both the storm and the ancient covered well
in the village, figure, it will be remembered, in Blackmore's
" Christowell."

This isolated stack of granite, on Hayne Down,

Bowerman's i J miles S.W. of Manaton, owes more of its fame

Nose. to its singularity and abruptness of form than to

its actual size and height, which is scarcely more
than 20 ft. Possibly it appears at its strangest seen from the

xx DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

road below, near Manaton, whence it stands clear on the sky
line, pitched at an apparently crazy angle, dominating a little
wilderness of granite and undergrowth. It has not escaped
suspicion of mystic attributions, for which, perhaps, the most and
only really potent argument that can be propounded is the fact
that modern intellects have still been able to conceive and
advance them. We are not yet so far from imaginative primaeval
ancestors as to be unable to apprehend the fairyland of untutored
surprise and admiration. Enterprising, if not athletic, visitors
will find the top an airy, though exiguous, point of vantage, with
— if a pious hand has not removed it — the inevitable bottle to
disappoint innumerable first ascents !

There is a Tor of this name somewhat south of
Hound Tor. Taw Marsh, but it is in no single particular the

rival of its namesake over Manaton (which lies
about i \ miles E.N.E.) The latter, both for general picturesque-
ness and for fantastic detail, takes very high rank among Dartmoor
Tors (though strictly speaking it is outside the Forest proper), and
it commands a very varied panorama. Moreover, if not on the
Moor, it is on a very representative miniature of it, for there is
probably no other district of a similar compactness which can
show within its limits so bold a collection of Tors as is visible from
or about Hound Tor. Hayne Down (with Bowerman's Nose)
and Eastdon in the north ; Honeybag, Chinkwell, Bell Tor, and
Charpe Tor to the west, and the various smaller Tors west of
llemsworthy Gate; to the south and south-east Rippon Tor,
Saddle Tor, and Hey Tor, with Creator Rocks before it : — our
point of view is all but surrounded by characteristic Devonian
rock-sentinels.

This aspect of the "twin rocks " is taken from a
Hey Tor. point near Creator Rocks on the north side of

the Beckabrook (not Creator, which is on the south
side of the Beckabrook), and is, perhaps, not inconsistent with the
general impression left by it throughout the large expanse of

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. xxi

country it commands. Of the outlying tors of the Moor, Hey
Tor is probably the chief favourite, and is almost too well known
to require description at this point of time. Instead, it may be
allowable to emphasise that the little dependency of Dartmoor,
stretching from Bowerman's Nose to Rippon and Hey Tors, well
repays a " perambulation " as a district of particularly pleasant
panoramas. A very characteristic view of Hound Tor and
Creator Rocks, for example, may be had some 200 to 300 ft.
below Hey Tor, N.W., while the various tors from Charpe Tor to
Honeybag, overlooking the upper end of the Widecombe Valley,
present each and all their admirable view points.

1,564 ft. In addition to its attractiveness as a
Rippon Tor. comprehensive view point, this Tor is reputed for

its singular logan stone, situated about a quarter of
a mile south-wTest of its top. The stone is about 4 ft. thick and
15 ft. long; "its estimated weight is rather less than fourteen tons."
On a rock, north of the cairn on Rippon Tor itself, a rudely-cut
cross will be found.

In the district between Manaton and Lustleigh,
Becky Fall. roads and footpaths are intricate rather than

obvious, and its many points of sylvan and river
charm are more easily enjoyed than discovered. From Lustleigh
as starting-point, Becky Fall may be reached during a round up
the Cleave, across Horsham Steps to Manaton, whence it lies a
short mile S.E. ; or the fall may be approached, more quickly, by
the bridge below the junction of the Bovey and the Becka
Brook (near to the view of the Cleave here represented),
whence winding woodland paths lead eventually, in somewhat
haphazard fashion, to the fall itself. Here, in a pleasant and well-
shaded spot, is a jumble of large granite blocks — moss-stained or
water-worn — over which the stream breaks into a cascade of
some 30 ft. in height, forming a scene of decided picturesqueness
when, by accident of weather, the volume of descending water
happens not to be insignificant.

xxii DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

Closely adjacent to one of the two great modern
Postbridge. thoroughfares of the Moor, this is, perhaps, the

best known individual relic on it. It is also the
largest and most characteristic of bridges — primitive practically
only in classification, and certainly not in their capacity for the
task appointed them. Whether the " scythed chariot of the
Damnonian warrior " ever passed over them, there is really
nothing to show ; on the contrary the old central trackway has
been proved to cross the river by a ford higher up. They carry
their age lightly, and are built in a style suggested by local
material. In a neighbourhood of this moorland kind, a bridge
might have taken upon itself a similar form in days not very
remote before the era of highway authorities and taxable farmers.

Leaving Sittaford Tor, or the Grey Wethers, a
Broadun. comfortable two miles slightly E. of S. (during

which we cross the East Dart river) brings us to
a point marked "camp" on the Ordnance map, on the right bank
of the river opposite to Hartland Tor. The remains here divide
themselves into two groups, distinguished as Broadun Ring and
Broadun, and by their extent point to a once considerable popu-
lation and importance. The more northern group, Broadun
Ring, is the smaller of the two collections, but is in the least
ruinous condition. Both groups were exhaustively explored by
Mr. Burnard in 1893, the interesting results of his examination
being detailed in Vol. IV. of his " Pictorial Records." In con-
nection with hh conclusion that the huts were roofed in, bell-tent
wise, by some handy thatching material supported by poles of
wood laid on the walls, he mentions that neighbouring bogs have
disclosed considerable evidence of a more flourishing tree growth
than reigns at present.

Following as straight a line E.S.E. from Fur

Beardown Tor as much athletic effort over sodden and

Man. liberally crevassed ground may allow, we are

surprised near Cowsic Head (i.e., after about
2| miles) by this fantastic sentinel. Of course, we have been

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

looking for it, and knew what awaited us ; but the element of
surprise is never wholly absent from the acquaintance of these
memorials. Familiarity cannot stale their stern immutability,
and at the twentieth sight of them as at the first, they hint of
things indecipherable, and are elusively eloquent of unremembered
days. In this respect, Beardown Man is the most suggestive
monolith on Dartmoor ; there is neither rhyme nor reason about
its position — merely an exquisite congruity. Its title, of course,
is a corruption, but the popular tongue which has transformed
Maen into Man has for once added a distinct touch of picturesque-
ness. Its height is about 11 ft., and width 3^ ft. The present
print, it need scarcely be added, represents it from its side.

1,595 ft. From Wistman's Wood the ascent,

Longaford N.E., to this Tor is not arduous. It is very

Tor. .prominent from Hameldon, the Gator district,

and thence westward. It does not lend itself to

much description, but is a fine pile of rocks in a neighbourhood

made pleasant by many associations. Taken in a moorland

circuit from Two Bridges, it is on the way to Broadun, and not

very much out of it for Beardown Man and the region beyond.

Perceived from any distance by the uninformed,

Wistman's this " third wonder of the Moor " might well be

Wood. passed by with no more than the casual glance

bent on a patch of scrub and undergrowth.
Actually, it is a place of considerable strangeness — the more so as
its charm is far more fickle than that of other Dartmoor spectacles.
In a dull hour, you may light upon it when it presents neither
character nor quality, and be merely annoyed by the curiosity
which brought you out of your way. At a favourable time, the
least sensitive cannot but be struck by its fantastic aloofness from
things modern and unmysterious. Its exact age is very little to
the point ; let it be found contemptibly recent — the impression
remains the same. Grown oaks little higher than man's own
stature, burdened with lichen to their topmost boles, tremulous

xxiv DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

with close-set ferns which cling to them, their gaunt arms wave
sombrely in the trailing mist, or sun themselves in exhausted rest.
There is something about this wood of decay made imperishable;
in that which stood for its youth, the seal of old age and dishonour
must have been on it, and it passes from century to century with
no added increment of growth or of mortality.

Only historical associations distinguish this Tor
Crockern Tor. and invest it with an interest which its character

and configuration could scarcely have earned for
it. What manner of constitutions the 96 burgesses, who attended
their court from Chagford, Ashburton, Plympton, and Tavistock
— 24 from each — may have rejoiced in, is not recorded. But it is
undoubted that they assembled at this not invariably Elysian
centre to " enact statutes, laws and ordinances, which, ratified by
the Lord Warden of the Stannaries, are in full force between
tinner and tinner, life and limb excepted." There is traditional,
but unconvincing, connection between certain relics at Dunna-
bridge and the rough-furnishing of this Tor for its court.

Swept away by the historic flood of July i yth,

Beardown 1 890, this bridge was subsequently re-erected by

Bridge. the Dartmoor Preservation Society. It is to be

hoped it may now survive for many a year,
centralising the interest of very beautiful surroundings. The
bridge is 37 ft. in length and has five openings, and the space
between the footway (now iron-clamped) and the water, at
average level, is little more than 3^ ft. Before the flood of 1890,
it had suffered in 1873, up to which time it is described as having
been in excellent preservation.

This forms both a boundary of the Forest and
Dartmeet. the meeting-place of the parishes of Holne,

Widecombe, and Lydford — the latter, in a bee-
line approximately 13 miles away. The junction of the two
branches of the Dart takes place in a pleasant neighbourhood of
contrasting wood and moor. Below it begin the milder woodland

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. xxv

characteristics of the river — hence naturally increased in dignity
and spaciousness — which receives no considerable addition
until the Webburn is reached, and the close-set woods of
Holne and Buckland make it justly famous in English scenery.
Above the modern bridge are the remains of a re-erected clapper
bridge, showing now a gap on the western side. There are hut
circles north of the road on Yar Tor, and some, 300 ft. up on the
slopes above the river, a considerable way south of it. Of much
interest also is the Coffin Stone — a riven block close to a green
track which cuts off an angle of the road as it climbs the slopes
of Yar Tor.

The bridges of Dartmoor pass, with comparative
Holne abruptness, from the purely moorland type,

Bridge. where the predominant requirement and impres-

sion is that of strength, to the type of which
Holne Bridge is a picturesque and favourite example. Hoary and
moss-grown, mostly laden with ivy, and hidden away in sheltered
and richly-wooded nooks, far from remembrance of tors and
moorland, we notice the second type for their picturesqueness
primarily, and secondarily only for their strength, though that,
even on the borders of the Moor, is an essential requisite. Holne
Bridge has four spans, the largest of which confines the normal
river, here contracted into a narrow and deep-cut course in the
rock. The bridge dates from the earlier half of the I5th century.

Denoted " Luckey Tor" in the Ordnance map,
Eagle Rock. this fine mass of rock (better known by the present

name) is situated on the left bank of the Dart,
under Rowbrook Farm. We can imagine it to have breasted an
ampler Dart in a remote antiquity, much as the rock-face at
Lovers' Leap still stems its course. The river between Dartmeet
and New Bridge, it need scarcely be added, is well worthy of
exploration, even though its Buckland reaches be near. It repays
at most times, and is not inhospitable or uninteresting even when
early snow foreruns the desolation of a moorland winter, or,
lingering beyond its time, delays the coming of spring.

xxvi DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

Slightly under a mile S.E. of Pnncetown, this

South Tor forms a boundary-mark of the forest. It is a

Hessary Tor. square and unusually compact mass, with a good

varied view eastwards and westwards. It is of
no great size, contrarily to the impression produced in the illus-
tration by the little wedged stone visible. The latter is not to be
interpreted as a human being infinitely remote on the inaccessible
top of a stupendous rock-mass !

Denoted also Siward's Cross. From South
Nun's Cross. Hessary Tor to this relic we shall probably follow

naturally the boundary line of the forest, of which
it is a mark. Mr. Crossing quotes a quaint sentence concerning
it from the back of an old moorland map, where the cross is
represented as based on two steps : " Hit is to be noated that on
the one syde of the crosse abovesaid their is graven in the stone
Crux Siwardi, and on the other side is/ graven Rowlande." As a
matter of fact, the inscription on the west face is convincingly
interpreted by Mr. Crossing as Boc Lond (divided into two lines).
The whole of his commentary is too long to quote, and students
must be referred to him, as interesting steps in his argument
would be lost in condensation. The cross is 7 ft. 4 in. high, and
the largest on the moor. It is agreed that both inscriptions are
independent of the original erection of the cross, the name
" Siward " being probably cut in it by a considerate late recorder
to perpetuate its popular designation.

This sacred circle is notable as the starting point of

Stall Moor a stone row of a very surprising length. Its course

Circle. from the circle is, generally, N., but its line is not

straight, nor, especially in its northern half, is it
uninterrupted. It is most complete where the ground is most
satisfactory, i.e., for the first rnile, approximately, from the circle.
From Redlake onward, it bends markedly to the N.W., leaving
Green Hill tumulus about quarter mile on the right ; becoming
more and more imperfect as the ground deteriorates into bog, it

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. x-xv

The bridges of Dartmoor pass, with comparative
Holne abruptness, from the purely moorland type,

Bridge. where the predominant requirement and impres-

Denoted " Luckey Tor" in the Ordnance map,
Eagle Rock. this fine mass of rock (better known by the present

xxviii DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

points of interest : South Hessary Tor, Nun's Cross, Plym-
head and Grimsgrave ; thence south-west to Ditsworthy Warren
and Drizzlecombe, returning almost due north via Combeshead
Tor to Down Tor Row and Circle ; thence across the leat,
leaving Cramber Tor well on the right, to Black Tor Avenue and
Circle, whence Princetown is a short two miles.

Anyone on, or in the neighbourhood east of,

Down Tor either Down Tor or Combeshead Tor. must be

Circle attracted to this fine circle and row. The vista

and Row. of the upright stones, stretching away eastward

from the sepulchral circle, is from the conformation
of the ground particularly effective. Mr. Burnard describes in as
being 600 yards in length, while the miscellaneous resume in
"Rowe," p. 411, gives it as 1,175 feet. The difference is probably
accounted for by the fact that the latter reckons only the existing
row, as re-erected in 1894 • while the former appears to reckon
the whole length to the cairn beyond the eastern end of the row :
though he himself adds subsequently that no traces of holes for
further stones have been found in the " break," and that the row
has been demonstrated to have consisted of only one stone more
than its present 173.

A peculiar block of large size and apparent
Black Tor. insecure poise forms the top of this pile. It has

not, however, as yet attained the dignity of a
Logan Stone. There is an irregular rock basin on it, near its
edge. In the little valley below this tor, in the angle of land
formed by a branching of the Meavy, there are remains of some
interest. Denoted in the Ordnance Survey as a " Stone Avenue,"
they are rather to be considered as two parallel single rows,
running east and west. They are each terminated at their eastern
end by a small cairn, surrounded by a circle of low stones. On
the slopes of the hill south of these antiquities is a small collection
of hut circles.

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. xxvii

appears to terminate in two stones east of Cater's Beam, near a
cairn, which may or may not be a kistvaen. This prolongation
of a previously known row was traced by the writer independently
of Mr. Page's description of it, which he had not read at the
time. It is, in fact, scarcely avoidable on any direct course from
the Ernie Valley via Fox Tor and Fox Tor Mire to Princetown
or Two Bridges.

Though described in "Rowe's Perambulation"
Grimsgrave. as situated " a quarter of a mile west of Plym

Head, in Langcombe Bottom," the explorer will
do well to make a more practical distinction between the two
small valleys thus run into one. Plym Head proper (as marked
in the Ordnance map) is a good mile and a quarter N.E.
of this excellent kistvaen, which is on the right bank of the
feeder of the Plym, rising at the point marked " Langcombe
Head." A circle of nine stones surrounds the kistvaen, of which
the coverstone has fallen in, being now wedged in the cavity. The
situation of this rush-engirt grave is notably solitary and desolate,
though it is not actually beyond inclusion in a comfortable circuit
from Princetown (see note on Drizzlecombe). This kistvaen
should not be confused with another to which the term " Lang-
combe Kist " would seem to be applied. The latter is on Harford
Moor, about one mile N.E. of the church.

The antiquities of Drizzlecombe, in the Plym

Drizzlecombe Valley, would appear to be almost wholly neg-

Antiquities. lected by non-specialistic visitors. If only in

view of the fact that we are here surprised by the
largest menhir on the Moor, this is to be regretted. Other
menhirs, such as Merivale, Beardown, etc., have their particular
associations in the mind. Beardown at evening, casting, in a
gleaming storm-interval, its long shadow over withered sedge,
goes near to weirdness ; but for strangeness both of size and
form, the great Drizzlecombe menhir, once prone, but now re-
erected, has no equal on Dartmoor. A very repaying day from
Princetown including it, may be outlined by the following

xxviii DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

Anyone on, or in the neighbourhood east of,

Down Tor either Down Tor or Combeshead Tor. must be

Circle attracted to this fine circle and row. The vista

and Row. of the upright stones, stretching away eastward

from the sepulchral circle, is from the conformation
of the ground particularly effective. Mr. Burnard describes it as
being 600 yards in length, while the miscellaneous resume in
"Rowe," p. 411, gives it as 1,175 ^eet- The difference is probably
accounted for by the fact that the latter reckons only the existing
row, as re-erected in 1894: while the former appears to reckon
the whole length to the cairn beyond the eastern end of the row :
though he himself adds subsequently that no traces of holes for
further stones have been found in the "break," and that the row
has been demonstrated to have consisted of only one stone more
than its present 173.

A peculiar block of large size and apparent
Black Tor. insecure poise forms the top of this pile. It has

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. xxix

1,277 ft., about three-quarters mile due west from
Leeden Tor. Black Tor, and two miles from Princetown. The

topmost block (to the left in the present illustra-
tion) forms a logan stone, and rocks to a very marked — and, to the
unsuspecting climber, discomposing — degree. An excellent speci-
men of a rock basin may be noticed upon it, with two or three
well-defined drainage channels. It is of small size, -but so obviously
and clamantly unartificial (as is also that on Middle Staple Tor)
that the once uncompromising Druidical theories of libation
and ablution, become, on the inspection of it, even more
unintelligible than usual.

Generally speaking, distinct uniformity prevails
Leather Tor. among Dartmoor Tors. Masses of granite, dis-
posed in ordered stacks, crown the hilltops or
lean against the hillsides. There is an aspect of design
about them, rather than of confusion, and their bulk is
insufficient to constitute anything like a mountainous outline in
a panoramic or distant aspect. The popular precept — still
advanced in text-books of physical geography — which makes
the distinction between hills and mountains a matter of size,
not of conformation, is mainly based on a misuse of language.
Snowdon is a mountain ; Skiddaw, near it in mere size, is
nothing of the kind. Dartmoor is hilly, is undulating, is an
upland plateau, is a succession of Alps in the original sense,
but it is not mountainous ; its lines and contours are essentially
placid. The exception which proves the rule is Leather Tor.
Approached from the east or north-east, we are confronted by
a small chaos of boulders, which, though miniature in com-
parison, in effect is not unworthy of a Highland corrie ;
above it rises a graceful outline, sharp and broken, typical
rather of gabbro than of our smoothly weathered granites,
and unmistakably mountainous in quality. On the top
we can indulge in a " ridge walk," not very precarious
it is true, nor extensive, but distinctly smacking of better
things.

xxx DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

The village of Sampford Spiney is prettily
Sampford situated, and has one or two very typical specimens
Spiney of bordfer homesteads to show besides its church

Church and and interesting tower. One of the farms has
Eggesford declined from the dignity of a Manor House.
Bridge. The church is small, about 50 ft. long and 15 ft.

wide, the chancel having been rebuilt. It is
mainly of interest for its picturesque site and surroundings, and
for its Perpendicular tower, with its crocketted pinnacles and its
buttresses terminating at the parapet. Descending from the
church to the deep-cut Walkham Valley, we come upon the
new Eggesford Bridge, with its circular flood-vents, as yet some-
what aggressively modern. If the Walkham spares it, it will
scarcely be long before it adapts itself to a delightful setting.

Any comprehensive or characteristic vre\v of this
Pew Tor. "hypaethral judgment court" is photographically

almost impossible. The Tor is well worth a visit
when the attractions of its more fantastic neighbour, Vixen 'i or,
have been exhausted, both for its dispositions of rock, and for
the rich western prospects from it framed in by its rock-walls.
On the north-west group there are four rock-basins, three of
them intercommunicating.

Situated near the Tavistock Road, an easy four
Vixen Tor. miles from Princetown. Misplaced as this Tor

seems from an imagined more congruous dignity
of position, it is yet, apart from the several resemblances which
have ingeniously been found for it, from all points of view
singularly impressive. One describer glorifies it as the Sphynx
guarding the confines of the mysterious Moor, but we cannot
wholly, even at his bidding, forget the unexciting and
unmysterious road which brought us to it. Transported to
Great Kneeset or Tavy Head, it would, at least, gain in
romance what it lost in the evidence of trippers' carousals.
Geologically, Vixen Tor is a good type of such Dartmoor

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

rock-masses as weather along joints both vertical and inclined.
There are three rock-basins of no particular interest on the
top. The figure in the illustration indicates the line of ascent,
up the central cleft or chimney. The climb is scarcely as terrific
a feat as certain guide books would have us infer. According to
its short notice in "Climbing in the British Isles," "the struggles
of generations of climbers are said to have communicated a high
polish to the surface of the cleft ; " but the action of rain-water
may be invoked with equal plausibility, as the polish is not always
as conspicuous as the dampness of the cleft.

Three furlongs due west of Vixen Tor, across

The Beckamoor Coombe, stands the octagonal cross

Windy Post, known by the above name. Mr. Crossing's

practical description of it is as follows : " It is
7 ft. in height, and across the arms measures 2 ft. 3 in. ; the
distance of the under surface of the arms from the bottom of the
shaft is 5 ft. The faces of it look nearly due N. and S., and it
inclines out of the perpendicular ; a straight line drawn from the
under surface of the arm, close to the shaft on the western side,
would fall 7 in. off from the bottom." The next nearest cross of
a similar prominence is the one, somewhat less out of the way
than this, on Whitchurch Down, 2^ miles W.S.W.

Proceeding for one mile N. of Vixen Tor, or some-
Staple Tors, what E. of N. from the Windy Post, we come to

Staple Tor and its fellows. These are among
the most peculiar of Dartmoor tops, and indulge themselves in
pre-eminently strange dispositions of granite. The most striking
is that nodding pillar of Mid-Staple Tor, which forms one of
these three illustrations. The epithet is not picturesque only ; in
point of fact, the two topmost blocks are delicately poised, though
securely enough, as yet, to reassure the climber. Great Staple
Tor has a curious little 3-tier pile, remotely suggestive of a
mammoth toadstool, or of a giant's occasional table. The view
from this Tor has much to commend it.

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

This perfect circle lies about one mile due N. of

Langstone Mis Tor, and i^ miles N.E. of South Staple Tor,

Circle. and is very conspicuous against the skyline W.

of Mis Tor from a certain point on the road above
Merivale Bridge. In spite of that fact, however, it is as yet
somewhat off the beaten track of the excursionist, having been
discovered and re-erected no more than six or seven years ago.
There is no more impressive circle on Dartmoor, even in its
present state, and it scarcely needs the imagined additional effect
of the now practically non-existent exterior circle to take artistic
precedence of other Dartmoor circles. Backed by Mis Tor, and
flanked by the no less characteristic Staple Tors, with its small
village remnants between it and the Walkham - an outlying
dependency of Mis Tor Town— we can scarcely imagine it away
now that it has recovered its due position. Its appropriateness is
such that we believe we should have invented some such cul-
minating point of the Walkham Valley, if it had not been
discovered for us.

Briefly summarised, these extensive remains
Merivale. consist of two avenues running E.N.E. and

W.S.W. for 196 and 200 yards respectively, at a
distance of 35 yards apart. The stones are low and inconspicuous.
The northern row at its east end has traces of a circle, and there
are also remains of one at about the centre of the southern row.
Under 100 yards S.E. from the latter are the remains of a
cromlech, and some distance from the eastern end of the same
row there is a longstone 6 £ ft. high. Due south from the western
end of the southern row is a circle of ten low stones, between 65
and 70 ft. in diameter; the longstone proper (here illustrated)
stands some yards behind this circle, and rises to a height of n ft.

I'lobably stout-hearted champions of Lydford as
Lydford. a centre would view with impatience the similar

claims of Chagford, while those of Chagford in
turn \\ould not be remiss in retaliation. Really, the two differ

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. xxxiii

wholly in spirit, and are actually, as well as geographically, as
distinct as east is from west. Chagford, if it concerns itself with
the Moor at all, seems to do so incidentally only, as the back-
ground to the glories of the Teign ; Lydford is nothing if not of
the Moor, and intimate with heather and sedge. In the words of
William Browne's well-known verses (from which the subsequent
lines are also quoted) : —

"The town's enclosed with desert moors,
But where no bear nor lion roars,

And nought can live but hogs ;
For, all o'erturned by Noah's flood,
Of fourscore miles scarce one foot's good,

And hills are wholly bogs."

The case of the neighbourhood, it need not be added, even then
can scarcely have been as bad as this bilious presentation of it.
To return to our comparison, even Lydford Gorge, almost unique
as it is, does not hold the balance against its Tors, as does the
Teign at Chagford — though, perhaps, this is to some extent a
matter of keys and regulations. The village consists of one long
street, along which are dotted pleasant informal cottages,
terminated by the ruins of the castle keep and by the Parish
Church of Dartmoor Forest. A popular guide book describes the
place as engaged in " rapid decay from the time of the Norman
Conquest," leaving us to infer vividly with what considerable
resources it must have set out upon its lengthy career of decline.
As a matter of fact, it continued in its repute for some centuries
after the Conquest, and was active in the severe execution of its
Forest Court and Stannary Court Laws.

" They have a castle on a hill, ....
.... Than lie therein one night 'tis guessed,
'Twere better to be stoned or pressed,
Or hanged, ere you come hither."

In the churchyard is a well-known epitaph of the ingeniously
metaphorical order, beginning :

" Here lies in horizontal position

The outside case of
George Routleigh, watch-maker . . . . "

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

The Church is dedicated to St. Petrock, and, excepting some
earlier remains in the chancel, is fifteenth century. Quoting from
its description in " Rowe," chapter xix : " The open rood-loft
staircase is of an unusual character, and the hagioscope which
runs through the south pier of the chancel arch and the rood-loft
staircase, is curious." Below the church is the famous bridge
spanning the gorge at the part where it is most like a miniature
or rudimentary Aarschlucht. Above the viaduct and private
grounds (and consequently always accessible) the Lyd, contracted
to a very narrow channel, breaks through a rift in the granite and
forms the fall known as Kit's Steps.

These general views are taken from points east

Lydford and west of Hare Tor, the western one being

Panoramas, somewhat further removed from the Tor itself.

This, beginning from the left, includes Links

Tor, Sharp Tor (in the centre), and Hare Tor ; the eastern, with

Sharp Tor again in the centre, has Links Tor on the right, and

Broad Tor on the left.

The connection between Tavistock and Dartmoor
Tavistock. is based historically on little more than the

position of Tavistock as a Stannary town. More
tangible, at the present time, is its relation to the Moor as a
visitors' centre. Its early history centres primarily round its once
magnificent Benedictine Abbey, which advanced in state and
power from the tenth century to its climax under Henry VIII.
" Ordgarus, Earl in these Parts, and Father of Elfrid, wife
of King Edgar, built this Monastery in the year 961," says
Dugdale, and adds that it was valued at ^"902 55. yd. per annum.
Its founder was buried at Horton Monastery, in Dorsetshire,
which afterwards was annexed to Sherborne. Still existent
remnants of the abbey have mostly been converted to modern
requirements ; the refectory has become a Unitarian Chapel, a
porch figures as a larder, and the Bedford Hotel comfortably houses
its wearied travellers on the site of the chapter house. A portion

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED. xxxv

of the cloisters also survives in the churchyard. The wall which
divides the vicarage garden from the river, with its Stillhouse
Tower, and Betsy Grimbal's Tower in the same grounds, are
other surviving remains. In addition, the vicarage garden has
also imported antiquity in the shape of the three inscribed stones
known as the Nepranus, Sabine, and Nabair Stones.

Scarcely more than six feet from the edge of a
St. Michael's, miniature precipice, overlooking, at the height of
Brent Tor. 1,100 ft., the eastern Dartmoor Tors, Cornwall
and the sea beyond Plymouth, this quaint and
lonely little church is a notable landmark, and picturesque apart
from the legends that surround it. The nave is 37 ft. long by
14 ft. wide, the tower being 32 ft. high. The church probably
dates back to the earlier half of the thirteenth century, and was
re-opened after renovation in 1890. Some of the graves in the
churchyard have been cut out of the solid rOck, as the site, in the
words of an old description, " doth hardly afford depth of earth to
bury the dead ; yet doubtless they rest as secure as in sumptuous
St. Peter's."

Collecting its waters from Kneeset and the moor

Tavy over which Fur Tor is set, the Tavy, sweeping

Cleave. S.W. in its general course, breaks its way through

the upland glen denoted by the above title, with its
many associations of picturesqueness in Devonshire minds. It is
impossible to be otherwise than charmed with it ; it is unfair to
it to indulge in disproportionate language. In the desolation of
Cranmere and of Fur Tor there is something absolute and
unassailable ; that, in truth, is the perfection of its kind. But if
Tavy Cleave is approached with " Titanic citadels " or " magnifi-
cent castellated ranges " in our minds, a certain disrespect is
in danger of being engendered, to the disadvantage of a pleasant
spot and of our impressions. The scene has too many excel-
lencies of its own to make it necessary to import Himalayan
phraseology. Rather let us observe by how many traces we

\x DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

here seem to be more closely in touch with original rock-energy,
to be nearer to original stress, if not convulsion, of creative and

:ing forces, than in most other parts of the Moor. Passivity
and acquiescence at last, in a measure, give place to visible

tance ; the frequent changes in the character of the river-bed
alone, now a congregation of errant boulders, then bare terraced
rock over which the river falls in successive cascades, are highly
picturesque ; and above it Ger Tor and its fellows stubbornly
contest the winter storms and frosts which have strewn their
sides with debris, though leaving them, as yet, proud and defiant
crests. Ger Tor, from every aspect, is an interesting object, and
near to the mountainous in type, though not quite as near as the
actually smaller Leather Tor. Besides devoting himself to
the Cleave, the visitor should certainly look down into its depths
from Ger Tor top ; the steep declension of its sides and the
whole character of the ravine is thence more immediately
recognisable.

1,877 ft- This Tor must always be the favourite
Fur Tor. of the moorland initiate. Every obstacle an

unqualified impatience can discover encircles it.
It is the central throne of a region which winter cannot mar, nor
summer touch with transforming magic. But a few miles
removed, the seasons display their regular pageants, and progress
from beauty to beauty, redolent with flowers and vocal with
birds ; here, there is nothing constant but death, and the raven's
croak is very music and comfort. Enislanded in passive decay
and soundless desolation, everything repels; there is not even the
relief of sullen resistance ; every line and curve is acquiescent in
fate, for peat is the least strenuous product of dissolution
imaginable. What kind of man he was that chose this neigh-
bourhood for his dwelling-place in aboriginal days-whether,
according to the philosopher's estimate of the devotees of
tude, either god or beast-is a problem of much human
he selected (or was banished to) a site marked by
itary hut circle on a nameless tributary of the Tavy.

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

There are also the ruins of a cromlech near the head of
the river.

It is fervently recommended by guide-books and
Cranmere. hand-books that the clearest possible day be

chosen for the desperate journey to this heart of
Dartmoor. But it may be said, without disrespect, that the
necessity for this is not very obvious to any one acquainted with
the ordinary use of the compass and a large scale map, and with
moorland characteristics. As a matter of fact, the clearest
possible day brings out in the smallest possible measure the
peculiar and characteristic savagery of this waste. Preferable by
far is a day of streaming westerly wind and mist, with occasional
sudden revelations and sudden blottings out ; and, as a matter of
practical detail, one is, under these conditions, less distracted by
unnecessary and merely curious deviations, by reason of the
straight course and strict adherence to the compass-line imposed.
In general, the terrors of Dartmoor exploration cannot be said to
have been underrated. It is just as well that enthusiastic pilgrims
should not be deterred from considerable pleasures by a too
impressive display of imagination ; for it should not be forgotten
that the very wildest position of Dartmoor is scarcely on a par, in
actuality, with a true Highland desolation. At an average of the
worst, two hours must infallibly bring one at least to the first
signs of civilization and return the timorous to composure. The
charm of Dartmoor, and of Cranmere in particular, lies not, to
healthy bodies, in any physical danger, or uncertainty, but in its
great aesthetic impressiveness, which is not only apart from scale
and difficulty, but in actual and curious contradiction to them.

There are some five or six tors known either as

Sharp Tor, Sharp or Sharpitor, the best known of which

Lydford, are the rock masses in Teign Gorge, in Lustleigh

Cleave, and over the Dart near Rowbrook. This

illustration represents the one between Rattlebrook Hill and Hare

Tor, some 2^ miles east of Lydford.

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

These twin and sometime rival topmost heights

High Will- of the Moor rise to 2,039 ft. and 2,028 ft.

hays and respectively. It is unnecessary to add that the

Yes Tor. outlook from them is extensive, though they

cannot by any means be considered to take first
rank among Dartmoor view-points ; for the distance round about
— particularly, of course, northward and westward — stretch far
but somewhat monotonously also. Undoubtedly, the most
sumptuous distances descried from the Moor are those from its
south-west quarter, at the foot of which the Plymouth estuary
gleams far in a rich and ever-changing prospect of wood and
dale. Finer than the prospect from these Tors themselves is the
sight of them from points near and far, whether they be seen end-
on as a mountain-ridge from Great Kneeset, or as broken walls of
rock near the eastward end of the Blackaven.

Seen from Yes Tor, 500 ft. below and ij miles
Rough Tor. N.E., on a day of contrasting sun and shadow, at

a moment when its broken mass stands out
against a dark and shadowy distance, this tor " catches the sun
in the twilight of memory." Under such an effect, or at evening
before the sun has vanished behind the high ground westward, it
seems more particularly than others the embodiment of ruin and
of age. Doubtless, by the time we have drawn near to it, the
vision has passed; but we shall, for all that, find the Tor to be a
little citadel of rock of more than ordinary boldness and rugged-
ness. There is another Tor of the same name in the upper West
Dan Valley, familiar in distant aspect to the visitors of
XVistman's Wood.

There appear to be no reliable data to fix the age

Blackaven or history of this bridge, which is situated under

Bridge. East Mis Tor. Mr. Page's note in his popular

" Exploration " will probably represent the
opinion of most visitors to this bridge :— « Some consider it as
old as Saxon times ; others go still further into the past, and
claim for it a Roman origin. What possible reason either people

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

There are also the ruins of a cromlech near the head of
the river.

It is fervently recommended by guide-books and
Cranmere. hand-books that the clearest possible day be

chosen for the desperate journey to this heart of
Dartmoor. But it may be said, without disrespect, that the
necessity for this is not very obvious to any one acquainted with
the ordinary use of the compass and a large scale map, and with
moorland characteristics. As a matter of fact, the clearest
possible day brings out in the smallest possible measure the
peculiar and characteristic savagery of this waste. Preferable by
far is a day of streaming westerly wind and mist, with occasional
sudden revelations and sudden blottings out ; and, as a matter of
practical detail, one is, under these conditions, less distracted by
unnecessary and merely curious deviations, by reason of the
straight course and strict adherence to the compass-line imposed.
In general, the terrors of Dartmoor exploration cannot be said to
have been underrated. It is just as well that enthusiastic pilgrims
should not be deterred from considerable pleasures by a too
impressive display of imagination ; for it should not be forgotten
that the very wildest position of Dartmoor is scarcely on a par, in
actuality, with a true Highland desolation. At an average of the
worst, two hours must infallibly bring one at least to the first
signs of civilization and return the timorous to composure. The
charm of Dartmoor, and of Cranmere in particular, lies not, to
healthy bodies, in any physical danger or uncertainty, but in its
great aesthetic impressiveness, which is not only apart from scale
and difficulty, but in actual and curious contradiction to them.

There are some five or six tors known either as

Sharp Tor, Sharp or Sharpitor, the best known of which

Lydford, are the rock masses in Teign Gorge, in Lustleigh

Cleave, and over the Dart near Rowbrook. This
illustration represents the one between Rattlebrook Hill and Hare
Tor, some 2^ miles east of Lydford.

cviii DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

These twin and sometime rival topmost heights

High Will- of the Moor rise to 2,039 ft. and 2,028 ft.

hays and respectively. It is unnecessary to add that the

Yes Tor. outlook from them is extensive, though they

Seen from Yes Tor, 500 ft. below and i£ miles
Rough Tor. N.E., on a day of contrasting sun and shadow, at

a moment when its broken mass stands out
against a dark and shadowy distance, this tor " catches the sun
in the twilight of memory." Under such an effect, or at evening
before the sun has vanished behind the high ground westward, it
seems more particularly than others the embodiment of ruin and
of age. Doubtless, by the time we have drawn near to it, the
vision has passed ; but we shall, for all that, find the Tor to be a
little citadel of rock of more than ordinary boldness and rugged-
ness. There is another Tor of the same name in the upper West
Dart Valley, familiar in distant aspect to the visitors of
Wistman's Wood.

There appear to be no reliable data to fix the age

Blackaven or history of this bridge, which is situated under

Bridge. East Mis Tor. Mr. Page's note in his popular

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

could have had for erecting so massive a structure in a locality so
remote I am unable to suggest, and attach, therefore, greater
weight to the fact that it is named New Bridge, and to the third
tradition, which describes its erection to peat-cutters."

The Taw, on its way from Steeperton to Belstone,
Taw Marsh, flows through a stretch of singularly level moor,

rich with contrasting heather and marshy growth.
" Deep in the antiseptic soil, here and in similar situations
whence the peat has been removed, branches, trunks and roots
of trees, chiefly oak and birch, have been frequently found,
which, on exposure to the air, speedily acquire great hardness."
(See also, in this connection, note on Broadun).

Rising under Okement Hill, and joined at

East Cullever Steps by the Blackaven, the course of

Okement. this moorland stream thence through Belstone

Cleave to the Railway Viaduct will by many be
considered the most picturesque for its length (or shortness) of
any on Dartmoor. Certainly it is indisputable that it has many
happy dispositions of rock and wood and waterfall, tempting at
every step to improvident delays at the beginning of a day's
excursion, or beguiling, at the end of it, even the most insistent
fatigue.

Occupying a little island of high ground, closely
Okehampton. embosomed in trees, and ivy-clad, the ancient and

ruinous keep of Okehampton Castle is conspic-
uous from the valley of the W. Okement. The ruins of this
stronghold of bygone Baldwins and Courtenays lie half-a-mile west
of the town, and consist, in addition to the Norman Keep on the
knoll itself, of the remains of the Early English Hall and Chapel,
and Castle Gate on lower ground, with traces of a moat ; the
whole deep-set in a wood of oak and ash. resonant with murmurs
of the river below. Besides these, the town has iittle of interest
to show, being now reputed mainly as a market centre, and as
the increasingly favoured haunt of moorland visitors.

DARTMOOR ILLUSTRATED.

The Taw, on its way from Steeperton to Belstone,
Taw Marsh, flows through a stretch of singularly level moor,

Rising under Okement Hill, and joined at

East Cullever Steps by the Blackaven, the course of

Okement. this moorland stream thence through Belstone

Occupying a little island of high ground, closely
Okehampton. embosomed in trees, and ivy-clad, the ancient and

Teign Woods, Chagford.

,s>

I "

E S

•ci

The Gidleigh Longstone.
17

Stone Avenue on the Teign.
18

Week Down Cross.
21

•ci

Bennett's Cross.
29

Ancient Well at Widecombe.
34

Bowerman's Nose.
35

Hound Tor Top.
37

E *

Becky Pall.
42

f
I-

The Beardown Man
45

I
s

•

I
i

Nun's Cross
57

§ 8

The Drizzlecombe Menhir.

o
Of

View on Leather Tor.

! I

Sampford Spiney Church.

The Windy Post.
71

i .

35 T

f R

Longstone, Merivale.
76

Lydford Bridge.
79

•g

Kit's Steps.
81

Mary Tavy.

Brent Tor Church.

Ger Tor.

i a

I
I

Okehampton Castle: Window.
99

Okehampton Castle: Gateway of Keep.
100

DA Falcon, T A

670 Dartmoor illustrated

D2F3

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CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

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Full text of "Dartmoor illustrated; a series of one hundred full page plates of its scenery and antiquities with some short topographical notes"

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